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Essays by Larry Barnett

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What is the forbidden fruit?

As the Bible tells it, humanity’s original sin was eating forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, thus generating awareness of good and evil. Essentially, this story is about the emergence of self-conscious free will and how it represents a separation from God. Accordingly, the story goes, God… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture Leave a comment November 6, 2023November 9, 2023 2 Minutes

When worlds collide

We generally divide reality into two orders: natural and human. Natural order is the reality which is beyond human origination and control: the patterns of the flow of seasons, dawn and sunset, tides, gravity, the myriad forms of plant and animal life that populate the earth, the arrangement of atoms,… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Philosophy Leave a comment October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 2 Minutes

Our terrible love of war

Why are we so war-like, or more honestly, why are men so war-like? War-like behavior among wild chimpanzees is a documented fact. Naturalist Jane Goodall observed that when a group of chimpanzees breaks off from a larger troop, the two alpha-male groups get into conflict. Males, and some females, make… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture 4 Comments October 23, 2023October 23, 2023 2 Minutes

How we rule

Having moved from the unconscious existence of pre-human animal life governed by biological drives and hereditary instinct, we find ourselves faced with power and the freedom of choice in how we rule our lives, both individually and collectively. Ruling ourselves is an inescapable human predicament… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture, Politics Leave a comment October 16, 2023October 14, 2023 2 Minutes

On hating haters

I find the behavior of Matt Gaetz, Marjory Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Kevin McCarthy reprehensible; I hate it. These four MAGATS and many other so-called republicans are pursuing policies and positions that damage our democracy; the only reason I can see for how they behave is their love of power… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Philosophy, Politics Leave a comment October 9, 2023October 9, 2023 2 Minutes

A crime boss of botany?

Amateur botanist Joey Santore talks like a thug; think Tony Soprano going on about the leaf structure of Eupratorium serotinum. A Chicago native, Joey’s internet identity falls under the aegis of “Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t,” through which he posts videos of plants and his commentary. Affecting… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Environment 1 Comment October 2, 2023October 2, 2023 2 Minutes

Can humanity be reduced to an algorithm?

Each of us is different and in other ways we are all the same. Sameness and difference are two sides of a coin; you can’t have one without the other. In our case, sameness and difference are the products of one billion years or more of ever-increasing animal complexity. At the present time, that complexity… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture Leave a comment September 25, 2023October 2, 2023 2 Minutes

Taking care of business

While walking down a busy street the other day I felt reminded of leaf cutter ants. Leaf cutters leave their jungle nest each day and embark upon harvesting; climbing into the branches of shrubs and trees they systematically chop leaves apart and carry the bits and pieces back home. There the cut-up pieces… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture Leave a comment September 18, 2023September 18, 2023 2 Minutes

Should public hate speech be illegal?

Our American culture famously celebrates freedom of expression. Freedom of speech is invoked as a catch-all justification for the most hateful of sentiments; the ACLU, defender of the First Amendment, has gone to court to protect the right of Nazi’s to march publicly while displaying swastikas and… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Uncategorized Leave a comment September 11, 2023September 11, 2023 2 Minutes

The MAGA-Anarchist Revolution

Those who refer to MAGA Republicans are mistaken. MAGA is not Republican. MAGA is right-wing anarchy. Historically, anarchists have been associated with the political left-wing; indeed, there are avowed left-wing anarchists. However, the left- and right-wing meet at their extremes, and both … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture 2 Comments September 4, 2023September 4, 2023 3 Minutes

The opposite of woke

The word “woke” is getting lots of airtime these days. The GOP uses it derisively as an insult, indicating that woke is synonymous with leftist attitudes and beliefs about family, religion, patriotism, gender, and politics. In other words, that woke means liberal, and liberal means celebrating difference,… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Uncategorized 1 Comment August 28, 2023August 28, 2023 2 Minutes

Dharma Barbie

While headed to our town’s historic one-screen movie house the Sebastiani Theatre to see Barbie, in walking meditation I purposefully inhabited the mystery of multiple selves: my biological self whose feet touch the ground, my imaginary self as an idea, and my quantum self as a waveform traveling … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Metaphysics 4 Comments August 21, 2023August 21, 2023 2 Minutes

The other Oppenheimer

My wife and I just went to the movie Oppenheimer, about J. Robert Oppenheimer, “father of the atomic bomb.” It’s well worth seeing, but prompted me to write about the other Oppenheimer, Robert’s brother Frank.

I met Frank Oppenheimer in the mid-seventies. He interviewed me for a job at the Exploratorium… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Uncategorized 1 Comment August 16, 2023August 16, 2023 2 Minutes

The soliton of self

According to the Big Bang theory, before the “bang” our universe was an infinitesimally small, non-dimensional singularity, a monad of the most basic and original substance or what the spiritually inclined call The Demiurge, The One or The Divine. From that perfect symmetry of wholeness emerged … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Uncategorized 1 Comment August 14, 2023August 19, 2023 2 Minutes

Enough?

In a recent essay about how consumerism is ecocide, I introduced the topic of “enough,” that unless humanity can stem its seemingly insatiable desire for more, we’re doomed. In response, a reader asked me to explore “enough,” what it is, who gets it, and who decides? Answering these questions necessitates… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture 3 Comments August 7, 2023August 7, 2023 2 Minutes

It’s all Greek to us

Are you a Stoic or an Epicurean? Maybe you’re a Cynic, or a combination of all three. However you think of yourself, it’s likely that you hew to one philosophy or another, even if you know next to nothing about any of them.

The origins of western thought are rooted in the philosophy of Ancient Greece. In the… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture Leave a comment July 31, 2023July 31, 2023 2 Minutes

An ugly cost of green energy

As per usual, we’re rushing into adopting new technologies without considering the true costs or ramifications. The explicit order, that which is intended and achieved, masks the presence of the implicit order, that which is unintended and remains hidden for a while. In the case of new green energy… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture 4 Comments July 24, 2023July 24, 2023 2 Minutes

Tune in, turn on, be woke

Is today’s anti-woke movement just a continuation of the anti-hippie movement that began in the 1960s? At that time, the collision between Flower Power and Pentagon Power split America into two cultural camps that have been at odds with each other ever since.

The divisions in our nation were clearly… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture, Politics Leave a comment July 17, 2023July 17, 2023 2 Minutes

When the hypothetical becomes real

The recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm that a web designer is entitled to refuse to create a website for a same-sex couple’s marriage on religious grounds is problematic. Not only were there no actual clients who requested the web designer’s services, no services were denied. The court’s… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Politics Leave a comment July 10, 2023July 10, 2023 2 Minutes

Everything for everybody or oblivion

I have written before about the challenge humanity faces in overcoming its predatory nature. Briefly stated, as animals we must regularly obtain life-supporting energy; we do this through predation, that is by securing and consuming plants and animals. Ours is a life-eat-life world, a predatory… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture Leave a comment July 3, 2023July 3, 2023 2 Minutes

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